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19 August 2015

Trent XWB-97 engine for A350-1000 status and roadmap.

Rolls-Royce will build 8 XWB-97 development engines in total and has run 5 of them.

The test program has just passed the 1.000 cycle milestone with the company claiming “good results so far” and “high confidence in achieving all our targets”.

Source: Airbus

On 25/June, the engine completed a 150h endurance test that included more than 16h at maximum take-off thrust and 42h 30min at maximum continuous thrust.

Meanwhile, development engine S/N20023 is at the company’s Stennis test facility in the USA preparing to have its ability to handle fan flutter and cross-winds scrutinised.

Source: Rolls Royce

Another engine at Stennis –S/N20026– will be used for cyclic testing, while a rebuild of development engine S/N20021 is taking place after that example underwent bird ingestion and rain and hail tests.

The flight testing on Airbus’s MSN1 A380 is designed to fine-tune powerplant integration and “de-risk” the flight test program on the A350-1000, expected to begin around Q3/2016.

Source: Airbus

Testing in 2016 and 2017 will focus on “maturity testing” including further thermal endurance and cyclic tests, to “ensure the final refinement of the product”.

Later this year, the company will achieve another first when the Trent XWB-97 takes to the air on the A380 flying testbed.

Based on the article “Rolls-Royce readies for Trent XWB-97 flight test on A380” published in Flight International.